Lawyer proposes flawless punishment for IEBC commissioners

IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati. He says he has not received resignation letters from the three commissioners

Three commissioners from Kenya's election board announced their resignation from the body on Monday, citing failure of the body's leadership and dysfunction in the organisation.

"The events related to the purported vote (to suspend chief executive) have greatly shaken our already feeble confidence in the chair", IEBC vice-chairperson Consolata Nkatha Maina and commissioners Margaret Mwachanya and Paul Kurgat said in a statement, adding that not all of the six commissioners were present, as required, when the vote happened.

Declaring they had no faith in the leadership of Chairman Wafula Chebukati.

The commission was frequently at the centre of controversy during Kenya's extended election season in 2017, in which around 100 people were killed.

The three further alleged that the agency's boardroom had turned into "a venue for peddling money, misinformation and grounds for brewing mistrust".

According to the NASA CEO, the deputy president was behind the resignation of Maina, Kurgat and Mwachanya, which came days after Chiloba was sent on a three-month compulsory leave.

IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati said in a statement on Monday evening that the three officials who quit "have not returned the public assets entrusted to them" and said that the commission's "operations are on course" despite the resignations and the ongoing audit.

"The Commission had affixed dates for its meetings and the meeting of April 6 should have taken place on April 12 when all the commissioners are in the country", they said.

He was left with only two commissioners: Abdi Guliye and Boya Molu.

Senate Minority Leader James Orengo described the resignations as a symptom of an "incurable and cancerous disease" that bedevilled IEBC, claiming that the latest developments undermined the legitimacy of the Jubilee administration and confirmed that last year's polls were an electoral fraud.

"Through the Speaker, I will invite the JLAC to move with speed and see how they can resolve the stalemate and possibly allow for a transitional exit for the remaining commissioners", he said. However, he said the commission would give an official statement on the way forward upon receiving the letters.